Summary: Beginning of a five week look at how God works in the lives of His people.

As parents we all have a dream for our children. We want the best for them. We want them to become all they can be. We dream for their successes, accomplishments, and spiritual development. So God had a dream for the man and woman He created and placed in the Garden of Eden.

I. Created in His Image (read Gen. 1:27)

Our lives and relationships are like God in many ways, so we can learn more about Him and the way He wants to relate to us as He reveals Himself and His incredible plans for us in a variety of ways.

1. Creation

2. Historical Events

3. Personal Circumstances

4. The life and ministry of Jesus

5. The Bible

6. Psychological, emotional, and social makeup

II. Created On Purpose

A. We are not an accident of nature; God directly created us for personal fellowship with Him and each other, which means we possess many characteristics of His own image.

1. Self Awareness

2. Imagination

3. Complex Language

4. Self-direction

5. Ability to think philosophically

6. Ability to think creatively

7. Capacity for memories.

B. God envisioned an incredible parental plan and brought it into being, and no doubt that brought Him a sense of enjoyment, a sense of fulfillment, and a Father’s joy.

III. Created to Be Holy

A. God reminds us throughout His Word that He is holy and that His hopes and dreams are for us also to be holy.

“13-16 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

B. As a parent God has our best interest in mind and wants us to find fulfillment in daily living, but He knows the only way for His plan to work in our lives is for us to participate in His plans for our holiness.

IV. Created for Him

God created us to live our lives with Him at the centre of our existence.

1. If we choose to place anything else at the centre of our existence, the pieces of the puzzle will never fit together properly because God made us for Himself and placed an empty spot at the centre of our being that only He can fill.

2. Without Him in the centre spot of our lives, life never makes sense.

Conclusion

God has a dream and created humanity in His image for the purpose of having fellowship with Him. To have fellowship with a holy God we must be holy. We are made for Him. When we leave God out of our lives, we become spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically crippled and deformed, alienating ourselves from our created purpose. God had a dream. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Gen. 1:26).